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Treatment-resistant psychosis is a challenge to psychiatry and a substantial burden to health-care systems. The province of British Columbia in Canada has publicly funded, universal health care, and patients with treatment-resistant psychosis may receive care in a specialized residential program. Between 1993 and 2011, 663 patients were admitted to this program; this cohort contains one of the largest known series of patients with treatment-resistant schizoaffective disorder.

All patients were evaluated by a psychiatrist, social worker, pharmacist, nurse, general physician, and neuropsychologist. Records from previous hospital admissions were reviewed and all information was presented at a multidisciplinary conference. This resulted in a consensus DSM-III or -IV multiaxial diagnosis and a detailed treatment plan. Ratings of symptoms and functioning at admission and discharge included the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale, the Social and Occupational Functioning Scale, and the Clinical Global Impression of Severity. A research psychologist compiled all data at the time of each patient’s hospitalization.

Patients who did not complete treatment or had a diagnosis other than schizophrenia (SZ), schizoaffective (SZA) or mood disorder (MD) were excluded; the following describes 551 included patients (SZ = 63%, SZA = 29%, MD = 8%). More than half were male (59%), and the mean duration of hospitalization was 30 weeks. The proportion receiving clozapine increased from 21% at admission to 61% at discharge. Those with a MD were less likely to receive clozapine than either SZ or SZA (SZ = 64%, SZA = 61%, MD = 41%). In each diagnostic group, both antipsychotic polypharmacy and the ratio of prescribed daily dose to defined daily dose (PDD/DDD) of antipsychotic medication decreased during hospital stay (polypharmacy: SZ: 52% to 16%, SZA: 52% to 14%, MD: 43% to 0%; PDD/DDD: SZ: 2.1 to 1.6, SZA: 2.1 to 1.4, MD: 1.6 to 1.1). The use of mood stabilizers declined in all groups, but antidepressant use declined only in SZ and SZA. Mean total PANSS score declined in all diagnostic groups, but most in MD, least in SZ, and intermediate in SZA.

In an intensive inpatient program for treatment-resistant psychosis, aggregate improvement occurred despite global reduction in medications while clozapine use nearly tripled. Lower total antipsychotic dose correlated with greater improvement at discharge.